Hi Guys,
thought you might want to know.

We have release the latest version of Image Compressor 2008.
That is v 6.1.0.2
As promised, it should fix the file association problem and also add new recursive folder menu under Image Tray mode.

Also, Tucows has write up the review for Image Compressor.
"Must Have Application - Image Compressor 2008"
http://www.tucows.com/article/2077

I would like to thank everyone for their feedback.
We can't do this without you!

This program fails to run after install because for some reason, it doesn't accept the license key. Then it immediately closes. The problem is that when the program installed, it also changed my default picture viewer to itself. So now I cannot reset the default back to Windows viewer because there's no way to access the configuration options since the program allows no access at all to anything within it because it doesn't recognize license key and closes immediately. I did email them to ask what to do about the problem with license but in the meantime, I have no way to associate jpg with Windows viewer again since I cannot access options in Image Compressor (image compressor took over all picture file types as default during installation), unless I uninstall Image Compressor completely. which of course would mean that it wouldn't ever be usable.

For hobbyist like me who owns a Canon SLR camera - this software is really great!
I also use Photoshop CS3 which is 5x more expensive. This can't beat Photoshop, but when it comes to compressing my CRW files into JPG, this 20% cheaper software is better than Photoshop. At least i can compress RAW photos in batch mode and not messing with the final quality.
This software is a must for anyone who cares about image quality. Thumbs up!

Note to GAOTD:
This kind of software requires more than 3 days to fully observe every features it has. Especially with many negative comments regarding file association and windows registry. I feel sorry for people who discouraged to get this software for FREE from GAOTD.
What if next time GAOTD offers such a complex software, please let us know at least 3 days first so we can try before the D day come?

completely unnessasary. for 100 bucks its a joke. get photoshop elements for 50 and its 10x more powerful. Yeah it works OK, but with the main feature of compression and not enough other tools, its definetely not worth $100.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT FOR $100

IT messed up all my image associations!!! Now I cannot Resize image using powertoy

Well #89, the default programs i use "do in fact reassociate themselves when i goto image or file properties and reassociate them simply that way but yes your right many do not reassociate from a program stealing the associations case in point todays program, anyway good ones can and will reassociate to your prefered viewer trust me, www.altools.net can and does reassociate all file type that it handles. All altools programs i mean, anyway understood full enjoy.

Thanks for the feedback from those who tried. That helps indeed :)

have to agree with #1 and 3, it was a little frustrating with the associations thing..as for "compressing" when you use it on a JPG to compress it, it only shaves off a little, I've had more luck shrinking the disk size of the picture with my old Paintshop Pro 7, but all in all it seems like an ok program

Thank you!

Setup and installed in just over one minute. Loaded Powerpoint and published to flash in seconds. Highly recommend to all members as a fantastic download. I am using Vista and Powerpoint 2007.

cheers

Rod

Finally had a chance to write comments after trying this software.

We have a 2 year old son who likes to watch his own photograph :)
We use our computer to store all the photos since he was born, up until now, the size is almost 2GB (taken with Nikon digicam and several cell phones). And we have a digital photo frame in our bedroom.

After reading some negative comments here, i decided to make the original backup before compressing. That file double click problem is easy to fix. Just started my ACDSee, and it associate(?) images back. So what's the big deal?

So, finally i decided to batch compress around 2000 images. And the result is tadaaaa!
2GB goes directly into 800MB! WOW! That's 1.2GB saving, yippie! The compressed images look very very nice!

Next, i want to store those compressed image to our digital photo frame. Ok, this software doesn't have an auto copy tool :(
But now the 512MB sandisk card now holds 50% more! My son will love it!

Conclusion:
This software is very useful, especially when you have lots of photos like me.
Thumbs up to masrizal and giveawayoftheday!

I have xp home. No problem installing this program. Changing the file extensions back is easy and basic computer stuff. I'm wondering why anyone who downloads these programs doesn't know the basics. I get so tired of sorting through these comments just to get to the 'real' and helpful comments about a program. I'm still trying this out but the last I heard, compressing any photo that you value is a no no especially if you may want to print it. Otherwise, besides being slow loading on my computer it seems just fine so far.

@106 Compressing of images is useful if you want to email them. If you have any quantity of images to send it is just a hsaale to send them die to being several megabytes in size. With a program like this you can reduce the size of them so they are much more easily emailed. Ths is an option if you have MS Office installed to reduce the size of images when you email from My Computer or Windoze Explore but this redeuces the dimensions of the picture making it a really small and not very good quality.


Also this giveaway is also useful for website devlopment so you can compress the pictures to speedup the loading of web pages.

Program would not register. Just said "Please connect to the Internet before registering" or something to that effect. Since I am posting this, I am obviously connected to the Internet. Also, Activate.exe would not connect, but since the registration info was listed in the readme, I figured it shouldn't matter.

End result, I could not start the program successfully and it STILL hijacked my file associations. Since I couldn't start it, I couldn't remove them in program options. So I uninstalled Image Compressor, and the program DID NOT remove its associations, nor the explorer shell menu items.

Big thumbs down.

Runtime Error! I tried so many different times but keep getting a file error, used both links 4 times and sent error message. "Microsoft Visual C**Runtime Library"
So i did not get the program

The automatic file association thing without the program asking me first is very nonprofessional and discouraging to those who are getting the program because they might use it in the future

Extremely powerful file compressor, I'm 6 foot 4 inches tall, and it reduced me as showing in my picture to a repugnant dwarfish sixteen inches phenomenon.When trying to remove the red eye, it make it into a macabre darken bluish eyeball. I've sent the picture via email to my old mom, and she suffered a panic attack as she looked at me. She is an old revolutionary girl from Chonchokovia, somewhere far-away there in Russia, and she has have pledged to boicot the software company by flagelling herself with a dry spaghetti over herself. HEARTLESS!!! You should be ashamed of yourselves..., snif! Poor Mom...

Nevertheless..., I will whole-heartedly recommend Irfanview, it works outstandingly.

http://www.irfanview.net/

Friendly Kisses and wining,

Merlot..., snif!

May do some good things, but I will not install a program on my machine that changes file associations without my knowledge or permission. Who knows what else it changes?

Appreciate the try, GOTD, but I'll pass on this one.

but using xnview or your regular viewer works fine to restore associations too- for all the rest there's revo.

I viewed the two photos on the company website without looking at any of the written explanations and notes that I knew had to accompany them. I made a number of notes comparing the two photographs.

I have serious problem with my vision. Objects with small details are difficult for me to keep in focus for more than 15 to 20 seconds. I changed glasses twice while studying these photographs.

The quality I tried to compare in the photos was sharp lines and details. One photo clearly appeared to have sharper details to me. It was it was the 1.5 MB picture. For snap-shots and family albums I would rate the smaller size photo acceptable if storage room on a memory card was at a premium. But I can fit 1,333 of the larger size photos on the one memory card I have in my Olympus digital camera. More than enough for me for an entire 10-years worth of vacations.

I don't take many photographs and I have no more than one or two hundred on my computer at any given time - at the most. My hard drive is larger than my memory card so I can survive fine staying with large size picture files. Still, its appears to be a nice program.

Thanks all.

I cant register the product
Please connect to the internet before registering.
...

The only place it changes file associations (at least on win2k) is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes

so exporting that before install then restoring after should undo the hijack, too.

Cannot get "Microsoft Word Document" to work!

Under Image Tray, "Create" "Micosoft Word Document when pressed, everything comes to a stand still. I have to shut down the program to restart. However, "Microsoft Powerpoint Slide" works.

Seems to work alright (only tried one sample and compared it to GIMP; comparable, but I wouldn't say superior). As far as file associations are concerned, I use Irfanview as my primary viewer; just open it up and set Image associations and voila. This doesn't bother me. Asking for Internet access each time it opens up (have Zone Alarm, so I know) does a little. Still, I would not purchase this gem, but for free, I'm not going to uninstall it either. :)

#43. When you right-click the pictures and look at properties, you can see they're indeed 1597512 and 469419kb. I downloaded them both and resized the original with Faststone and Irfanview to the same percentage, so I could compare all resized ones. (Enlarged the word 'Mariott' as far as it would go.)
Although Faststone is the better from the two, today's IR gives a far better picture quality.
I would have like it if it worked with Vista instead of crashing.
Maybe something for Rizal to look at?

Two comments

1) The web album looks cool and I like this the best so far.

2) File assoication can be fixed easy by opening whatever program you used now. Using IrfanView for example, "Options", "Set file associations", tick GIF, JPEG, PNG and TIF. Things go back to as before!

Thanks to those, esp since about post #80, who have given advice and tips and links on general ways of dealing with some of the computer management issues this software raised. I appreciate it, and I'm sure other pesky "amateurs" do too.

Fubar - you have this amateurs thanks (once again) for being the voice of reason. I dl'd this last night before there were any comments - not my usual strategy - and thought it was a nice addition to my virtual library....then read today's comments. Panic set in about 1/3 of the way down the page!!!, but I figure if it got good marks from you then things were cool ;)
A tip for GOTD downloaders - whenever I install something from GOTD, the first thing I do is open the options/preferences/whatever file and go thru it with a fine tooth comb. I started this practice to disable any "automatic update" features the program might have in place. There have been instances where an update kicked in and reverted a fully functional and registered program to a 15/30 day trial - not good. However, there are other benefits to checking out the options box - it gives you a heads up on what you can expect and that was how I discovered the file association snafu and how to fix it (with no tears). I also do not allow an unknown program to attach itself to my browsers - uhh, that sounds...nassty!, lets say "integrate" instead :) - until I know a bit more about it...Obviously, I'm no expert, and my computer literacy is questionable at best, but there were 2 things I would suggest to the developers. Correct me if I am wrong, please, but at $100 a pop I expect to be able to 1. use my own fonts when adding text to an image, and 2. have more than four choices of magnification when using zoom - fit, 50, 100 and 200% just doesn't cut it, okay? But what do I know, I'm just a fuzzy little rodent.
Cheers,
hg

Only reason for me to use it: EXIF editor, wow :-)

DOES NOT WORK. nono :-((

And if uninstall does not remove ALL registry entries? --> GARBAGE.

It just crashes whenever I try to save a JPEG...

Another re-invention of the wheel. With today's hi technology, huge HDDs, Broadband internet, who wants to play with crappy 100K pictures anyway. Remember also once a picture has been compressed in JPEG format it cannot be recovered and each compression destroys the original quality even more.

For serious digital processing of photos etc Photoshop is all you need, just takes a bit of time and effort to learn how to use it.

#47- FYI: Faststone http://www.faststone.org/
has a terrific FREE image “compressor” program called Photo Resizer 2.5

Comment by Ballpeen — March 3rd, 2008 at 8:07 am

Tried this, not as impressive as "Image Compressor", but it works fine.While i was there i downloaded their "Image Viewer" and that was impressive. Fast viewer with explorer functions, lens etc. Best i have used so far. Kept it as my default viewer. Thanks..

Hijacks file associations? Please fix this and resubmit to GOTD, because I can't even consider going through that nightmare in order to try it or recommend it to others. Thanks to Thoth for the heads up, and I know it might have seemed a little thing to the designer, but is a deal breaker for some of us.

The file association thing is a serious bug, the registry entries too sound suspicious, and the inflated price - Are they really saying it`s as good as Photoshop? Give me a break!!!

just download the free program Paint.net


save your images in whatever format you want, change the image quality to change the final file size.

You guys do know that compressing a picture will leave artifacts?

and that it reduces the overall quality of the picture?

just use Paint.net and skip this stuff.

Downloaded and installed with no problems. Had to uninstall because I did not like the file association feature with clicking on a photo in IE. I tried changing the associations to eliminate those I do not want it to associate with and it would not allow me to do so. Unclicking the jpg, tiff and such would not change the function. In fact when going back into the program they were still checked. I needt able to open a photo file quickly without loading a big program to view it since I upload to the web a lot and sometimes need to check the photo priot to upload.

Another problem was I wanted the program to open in a smaller window and it always defaulted to opening in the expanded window regardless of how I closed the program in a small window. Didn't like that feature at all.

And revouninstaller should help with leftovers.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/

regarding the hijack of file extensions, can't one simply export the registry keys that hold those associations (correct me if I'm wrong, but that's only 3 places, right?) and import the reg files to reset them? Perhaps someone might write and post a batch file or instructions?

Heck, since I plan on it before install I might post how I did it, if nobody beats me to it.

I have just used this program to compress a 1,062kb photo down to 360kb with virtually no noticeable reduction in quality and without reducing the size. I have not been able to produce this quality at this compression rate in Photoshop! This is a useful program, and it's free. And the file association thing is so easy to correct, so what's the problem?

Is this a Joke ???
Fills registry with Classes & file type like no other image program.
Want Internet access on every start-up that can't be disabled
Compress a small jpg and it gets bigger
Sometimes it can't be closed need task-manager to close it
Configuration options like it was the first version
Uses 24MB memory with browsing a picture
and this for 99$, when it still should be in a beta release

And then when you uninstall it left a lot in registry and all images give an error if you try to open.
Rolling back to an backup

/GertJ

If you only need a quick and simple photo reducer/compressor for jpeg photos for the net try the elegant little program PhotoResize400 at http://www.rw-designer.com/picture-resize. When installed in the user's sendto folder, just right click to compress the picture before other programs can even open. Free and only 300K size.

Thanks to all the commentators here for a very informative discussion which is much appreciated to a novice. I think i will not be downloading this particular one.

All the same this is an excellent site and Thanks GOTD

Another tip for people who don't want to mess up their system: virtualize. Get something like MS Virtual PC (overkill...), Sandboxie, or the personal edition of Altiris SVS (!!). That way whatever the software does, it won't come in contact with your proper system.
(!!) This might prompt you to do something... I won't explain.

Downloaded and installed fine on my XPPro machine. Open and ran ok.
Any time I install an app I immediately go to options to check for set up customizations that may affect my system in a way that I do not want, and set the settings accordingly. Anyone should realize that any image viewing or editing or conversion app is probably going to have file association changes as part of it. Knowing this exists-look for it and set it the way you want it origianlly during app setup. I did this with this app as I do with all apps and I initially deselected all my associations and kept them as I had them. This choice came up as an option during initial setup. I used it. I do quite a bit of image editing as an amatuer photographer and like this app. It has many useful features which I am learning to use. I use many image editing apps both freeware and bought. While it is quite pricey it is still a good addition to my collection especially since i have not paid for it. Thanks MasRizal and GOTD for this excellent offering.

Tidbit for #81: In regards with the Registry, it was originally used in Windows 3.1 as a way to keep file associations. The original regedit was almost the same window as in Windows XP Tools>Folder Options>File Types. Too bad that Microsoft decided to open it up so programmers can put all sorts of junk in there so the user wouldn't see it. It's a shame. Also, uninstall programs don't remove settings made by the app after installation, probably because the unmanageability of registry entries that their programs created, or the "Oh, our program is so great. They'll come back, and find all their settings!"

Even knowing that the program would claim file associations without telling me, I decided to give this a shot. While the program will let you revert to previous associations (I don't know how many it took and how many it restored - I'll find that out later) and it's not too hard to (re)set them yourself, that doesn't make it okay for a program do so without notice. Fortunately, it wil be addressed with a later release, according to Rizal. I would suggest a dialogue that asks what file types you want associated with Image Compressor, if any, as opposed to taking all or none.

Most people don't need or even use most of the available image formats that are available. Most of the time, I use BMP, JPG, PNG, PSD and TIF, with the occasional GIF or TGA in there. But that doesn't mean that's all I'll end up using over my lifetime; it just depends on what the image is for and what format is best for said task.

Moving on...

I took three renders of mine and compared the BMP to the output of Paint Shop Pro, ACDSee and Image Compressor. In two of the three, I couldn't really see any difference between the three versions. In the third, ACDSee and Image Compressor provided similar results, with PSP's version showing more of a difference. All looked good and would be acceptable for my use.

One thing I noticed about Image Compressor is that doing it again would get different compression levels and file sizes. Maybe I just missed it, but I couldn't find a way to manually set the compression level to a certain percentage, only some presets that didn't give much indication as to what the setting was. Going by file size does work, but it doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the image, only its end size. If file size is a limiation and the quality to get there doesn't matter as much, then that's okay. When I need to get under a certain size, I still want to maintain reasonable quality, so I'll do other stuff to the image and try again (resize and add border, reduce color count, etc.).

The program works, but I don't see any reason to use it over anything else I currently use; PSP and ACDSee serve my needs, with an assist from GIMP for a few tasks on occasion. Like I said, I didn't see much difference in the quality of the images I fed into the software. I didn't spend a lot of time doing this or try out dozens (or hundreds) of images. Your mileage may vary, depending on what you're putting in - its dimensions, how many colors there actually are, contrast, RGB levels... any number of variables that could influence the final result. Scans and digital photos (which may make up the bulk of what most people use this for) may yield better results with which to compare.

Being personal use only here doesn't help me any. And I have to be honest, I'm not sure if I'd shell out $100 for a program that does what other software I have can already do. If you don't have an image editor or aren't comfortable with one, Image Compressor could come in handy for basic editing of your pics and optimizing them for sharing with friends and family or uploading to something like Photobucket. If you deal with images a lot more - especially if it's part of your job - you probably already have something that can do what this software does.

Is it better than PSP, Photoshop, GIMP, ACDSee, Irfanview or any of the other software that can do the same stuff (or more)? I don't really know.

Comparable? For what it does, yes.

Hey...Lotsa thanks to Team GAOTD for giving away this product.The product is not only small,cool,useful but truly multipurpose.Yes, i too faced a "gdiplus.dll file missing probs but immediately downloaded from the following site -

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?gdiplus

Just save the file on the desktop >unzip it > copy the .dll file > click on the icon > find target > paste !

and Voila !

Don't panic seeing the new faces of your old image files. You can open 'em using your favorite goodies !
Just right click on any of the images and use the "open with">select your favorite program [irfan-view/photoshop]Thats all. LOL

@#53

Why complain? You don't know how hard it is to reassociate everything with lots of different photo manipulators. Case in point: I use the built in viewer in Windows (one of the few things that I appreciate in Windows) to view my images, but once in a while some program takes over and assigns the extension to itself. Now do you see any easy way to reset the association back to the built in viewer? You could just go and change it with Windows, but half the time that does SQUAT. How about the icons? Good thing a little utility called imgeditor can restore the associations. Also take my audio files. Got a whole bunch of them. Used to use WMP, Quicktime, and Real. Had to reassociate them in specific steps. Now I gave up all of them and is using Foobar 2000 instead. So you can see how annoying it is for every association to be stolen away from the original.

I love this product. Very easy to use and great compression - Thanks GAOTD!

For all you whining as to the "pirated" file associations there's good news (so it SEEMS 'cos I haven't tried myself):
First, answer these five Q's with YES.
- Do you like animals?
- Do you like dogs? (i.e. cats that bark and bite instead of meow and curr)
- Do you like phantasy/tv dogs? (like Lassie or Snoopy)
- Do you like digital/pc-related dogs?
- Do you like digital/pc-related dogs even if they help YOU (not vice versa as usually)?

If you truly have said YES upon all these questions, look at http://www.winpatrol.com.
Scotty will rescue from all your file type sorrows.

Just download and install WinPatrol BEFORE installing IC 2008 Pro, go to Options and mark "Lock File Types".

Side-note: As a sign of your gratitude Scotty doesn't want bones or stuff like that. All you need to do to make him happy is visit your local dog pound and purchase one poor dog (or even more) for your home ...